Somewhere Within
by Khaila
Summary: When her private demons were buried, his own would be revealed and his oldest and only friend would be his final strength. Just as he had been for her in her weakest moments. DHr


Title: Somewhere Within

Author name: Brittney

Author email: Krazy2Beautiful5@aol.com

Category: Romance

Keywords: Hermione Draco Post-Hogwarts

Rating: PG-13

Summary: When her private demons were buried, his own would be revealed and his oldest and only friend would be his final strength. Just as he had been for her in her weakest moments. D/Hr

DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. 

Author notes: The song used here is Christina Aguleria's "A Voice Within". This is my story to someone who provides me with strength with few words. 

  
  
  


_Somewhere Within_

  


*

_Young girl, don't cry_

_I'll be right here when your world starts to fall_

*

  


He sat beside her night after night as her breathing became rigid and sweat poured down her face, mocking the tears that would soon follow. He watched her toss and turn without so much as a coherent word to the world around her. Night after night this is how it would go, Draco never falling asleep until she awoke in a frenzied panic whispering about her lost loved ones. 

  


Hermione's world had started to fall apart years ago, way before Draco came into her life, that she will tell you in a minute. The only difference is at twenty-one someone was there to hold her when the dreams forced her into a world she would rather forget but when she was eight she only had a teddy bear that was burned along with her house when she was just a child. 

  


He watched and waited, thinking on how this all came to be, it was all Harry's fault, but for once Draco wasn't bitter about Harry being behind it. Harry was the first one to understand how Hermione could think anything good of him. Hermione was the first to believe in him and maybe she wouldn't even be in his bed if it wasn't for Harry. 

  


But it was also because of Harry that Hermione's world had began to chip away piece by piece, faster than it had been before. And just as she was there for him when his world came tumbling down in a moment, he was there for her when her world began to crumble onto it's weakened foundation. 

  


But as much as he had tried to stop her warm tears they never faltered. They haunted him constantly as a reminder that he'd never be good enough to stop the memories.

  


*

_When there's no one else_

_Look inside yourself_

_Like your oldest friend_

_Just trust the voice within_

_Then you'll find the strength_

_That will guide your way_

_If you will learn to begin _

_To trust the voice within _

*

  


She woke with a force so strong that it shook Draco's protective stance, her breaths coming in gasps and her hands reaching out for him. He caught her hand, she whimpered, it was always the same, she would be strong in the morning when his voice would echo in her mind making her the strongest of them all.

  


The outside world never knew the avenger of Harry Potter dreamed of hell next to her traitor husband, they never knew of the private hell she lived in, not even the wisest of them. Night after night he places his strong, pale, arms around her and whispers the very words that have rescued her every night.

  


"Only the strong survive, only the intelligent survive the strong, be strong and intelligent my Hermione and survive us all."

  


Like he had done in the past he whispered the words to a woman who clung to him in desperation. Draco spoke the words to a woman who would look upon him as the world had looked at the fallen hero Potter. She would always stare into his eyes nodding her head, understanding that tomorrow began a new battle of the fittest. 

  


Draco would lay her down next to him, reminding her that though he wouldn't be with her all she had to do was think of him and trust that all he had promised would come to pass. Every night the young girl that saved him would remind him that he owed her a debt that would never be repaid. And every night he did the best that he could, handing her the strength that she needed.

  


Hermione's eyes fluttered softly against her pillow as she whispered to Draco of her dream, the same one that came every night, a nightmare of life that would forever haunt the woman beside him.

  


"Harry, Ron, Ginny, and you are all gone! Too far for me to touch, to hold, to protect! But how -- how do you come to me every night Draco when you are perished in my dreams? How?"

  


Draco only kissed her cheek, he knew the next morning the questions would be erased with the first light of strength that his body would bring her in the morning.

  


*

_You'll make it_

_You'll make it_

_Just don't go forsaking yourself_

_No one can stop you_

_You know that I'm talking to you _

*

  


Draco woke again four hours later waiting and watching for her fearful brown eyes to look upon him in the morning light. He waited for her to wake and ask without words for strength to make it through the fight that would occur somewhere far away from the place that she slept.

  


Hermione opened her eyes, pushing the thick blankets off her body, she looked over at the sliver eyed man looking at her. He grabbed her hand and she understood, she was the strongest of them all, he knew it and he believed it. All she had to do was think of him and it all would be easier. 

  


She would kill, curse, and send the dreaded kiss to many throughout the day. Draco would stand behind the man that made him, smirking as his haunted lady had her revenge on all who chipped at her world until it was barely recognizable. And in the end she would send a hateful glare at the man in front of him, warning him that soon his time would come to face the wrath that her tears bore.

  


He smiled at her and sat up knowing that today he would have to believe in her more than he did most days. For today was the day that the man in front of him would fall and with him the rest of Draco's world. 

  


Tomorrow would bring his own nightmares, cold sweats, and fretful weeping. And in her eyes she promised to return the devotion he had gave her in the past, in her eyes she promised to be the girl who had once saved him from the world that would very soon end by her wand.

  


Today all of her nightmares would come to an end and she would no longer toss and turn in her sleep. Today all of her questions would be answered with one word. She would never use an unforgivable curse, that he knew, this time tomorrow his maker would be _worse _than dead. 

  


The Heir of Malfoy would be no more, along with his Dark Lord, and the House of Serpent. When he returned home his name would be no more and his name would bear a reputation of weakness. For today he would renounce all he was taught to be. 

  


And then she would then believe that he was the boy she saved from a fate that one would never wish upon their greatest enemy. He knew at that moment Hermione's love would be his only strength, the moment The House of Malfoy became no more.

  


*

_Young girl don't cry_

_I'll be right here when your world starts to fall_

*

  


When her private demons were buried, his own would be revealed and his oldest and only friend would be his final strength. Just as he had been for her in her weakest moments.

  


Even though he wasn't strong enough to stop the memories for her, she would be his only distraction from the horror that had brought him to even accept the darkness that the man in front him prided himself in. 

  


So Draco stood, reminding the girl that he would be right there when her world began to rebuild just as he was when it fell. And all was lost to her after that, she only saw that Draco was there, that he believed, and she could do as she willed, as long as he was there. 

  


Draco's faith was strong and her world began to rebuild, while his ended completely in one lonely second when his will over powered his father's for the first time.

  


"I renounce the House of Malfoy, I renounce my place as Heir to Lucius Malfoy, Jr., and I renounce my place in the Dark Circle of life." 

  


Lucius was momentarily surprised as his son committed the ultimate sin and in his moment of surprise Hermione sent a Dementor on him faster than he could throw a curse Draco's way. 

  


And there it ended, Hermione's private hell, but her strength was given to her by the love Draco provided from somewhere within. Somewhere that she never would discover until she returned the strength that he provided.

  



End file.
